Girl shoots, rides way into world championship

Monday

PLANT CITY — Days before Hurricane Irma started to sweep through Florida, 10-year-old Plant City resident Aniston Ainsworth packed up her bags and her horse, Shotgun, and headed north with her family.

But the Lincoln Elementary Magnet School student wasn’t fleeing the storm. She and Shotgun were headed to the Tennessee Miller Coliseum in Murfreesboro, Tenn., for the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s (CMSA) Equine Omega Complete Eastern United States Championship, held from Sept. 6 to Sept. 9. After three consecutive days of competition, Aniston took second place in the wrangler category for those age 10 and under, and qualified for the world championship.

“I’ve been riding since I was 18 months old,” Aniston said. “I started doing mounted shooting when I was 8.”

In the competition, riders are given one of 80 course layouts with balloon targets to pass and shoot. However, the CMSA doesn’t allow riders younger than 12 to use fake or real guns so Aniston was required to run the course around the specified targets as quickly as possible.

Before heading to Tennessee, Aniston rode Shotgun through her grandmother, Brenda Kemp’s, practice course in Brooksville, where she practices about twice per week. Milk jugs are used instead of balloons. After working on her barrel turns around course targets, she stood on top of Shotgun and slid off the back of the horse. Over the years, Aniston has had her share of falls and one broken bone.

“I’ve fallen off a bunch,” Aniston said. “But I feel like if you worry about it, you won’t want to do it. So I don’t even worry about it.”

Kemp, 63, who has four of her own horses, was the one who encouraged Aniston to ride.

“I grew up with a father that was a Quarter Horse jockey when he was 16,” Kemp said. “I only ever heard the stories, they would not let me have a horse. I got my first horse at 48, and made my cowgirl dream come true. She (Aniston) was involved. I took an umbrella stroller outside, and she’d be out there with us cleaning stalls.”